Return

1/30/2025

Hey, this wasnt here yesterday. This post is late you're cheating! Thats what I imagine readers are thinking right now. but that's not what you're thinking I'm sure. It's a silly thing to to think. How can I cheat when I'm the one that makes the rules! For the duration of your time on this webpage it might as well be 1/30/2025 for all it matters. Don't forget to come back if you want to feel nostalgic for the good old days before 1/31/2025.

So, yesterday (01/29/2025 that is... ok maybe this might be a little confusing), digital videogame storefront GOG (pronounced "gee-oh-gee" short for "Good Old Games) rereleased the PC ports of Dino Crisis 1&2. This is really cool, but to explain why is going to take a lot of context. One of the best things about PC gaming is that there are no discrete hardware generations. When you upgrade your hardware or buy a new PC the PC games you already own might still work on the new machine. The operative word here is might. We don't live in a perfect world and hardware and software incompatibilities do accumulate and break games. It can take a lot of work to get a game from 10 years ago or more running on new hardware. Sometimes you get lucky though. I can still pop in my original 1995 cd copy of Fury³ and get it playing albiet woth some minor tolerable problems.

However, GOG doesn't just give you a download with the game files and say good luck. They put in some leg work to make sure, to use their words, "games live forever". Capcom's old PC ports of their games like Resident Evil and Dino Crisis were even at the time of their release notoriously tempremental, but the versions GOG is selling are available, excessively affordably ($10 each for Dino Crisis 1&2 or $16 for a bundle) install, boot and... just work. With no configuration or messing about by the end user. Furthermore, with GOG's new preservation program they promise to ensure compatibility for future hardware configurations (admittedly only for select games)! GOG is the only digital storefront that promises the games you buy from them will be playable as long as is practically possible.

However, there is a dark cloud on the horizon. One that is endemic to all forms of distribution. That is the question of "Digital Media Ownership". This has become somthing of a hot topic in gaming and film and television. The fact of the matter is when you buy a digital movie, tv show, videogame, ebook whatever what you really purchase is a license to access that product. You don't really own the product and your access can be revoked at any time depending on the terms of a EULA (end user license ageeement) you agree to by using the service. So if you're buying a license that can be revoked at any time how can you claim GOG ensures your game will be playable for as long as practically possible? After all they could just put a clause in the EULA no one reads that can says they can revoke your access for any reason. Well, they technically could, but they won't. How can I be so sure? Because that would be unenforceable. Unlike nearly every other digital distribution service GOG is DRM free. DRM (digital rights management) is a blanket term for measures employed by a company to manage your access to their software. For modern games this usually means some dedicated launcher that needs to authenticate with an internet server to confirm the game is legitimately licensed before launching. GOG only sells games that don't check for authenticity. They'll just play. Even better GOG provides you with installers you can download and store offline so you can archive your games locally should their service ever die without having to have them all installed at once. So while you dont technically own the games you buy on GOG you effectively do.

So that was my completely non-sponsored ad for GOG.com, and a primer on digital (lack of) ownership. I'll be making another post later today (real today not the day we're pretending it is) to catch up, but it might be shorter. This post ran longer than I expected and I think I have even more to say.